ORIGINAL FORESTS AND THEIR EARLY DEVELOPMENT 185 



all routed; . . . There is also the very good news come of 

 four New England ships come home safe to Falmouth with masts 

 for the King; which is a blessing mignty unexpected, and with- 

 out which, if for nothing else, we must have failed the next year. 

 But God be praised for this much good fortune, and send us the 

 continuance of his favour in other things." 



It was in this same year that the great fire of London, necessi- 

 tating the use of a large amount of lumber, brought the whole 

 question of lumber supply prominently before the English 

 nation. Charles II, inspired by the example of Louis XIV, that 

 great patron of the arts and sciences, had created the Royal 

 Society, and John Evelyn had brought forth in 1662 his "Silva," 

 the first work on forestry in the Enghsh language. In the 

 dedication of this most interesting volume to the King in 1678, 

 Evelyn says: "I need not acquaint your Majesty how many 

 millions of timber trees have been propagated and planted 

 throughout your vast Dominions, at the instigation, and by the 

 sole direction of this work; because your Gracious Majesty, has 

 been pleased to own it Publickly for my Encouragement, who, in 

 all that I here pretend to say deliver only those Precepts which 

 your Majesty has put into Practice; as having (like another 

 Cyrus) by your own Royal Example, exceeded all your Pred- 

 ecessors in the Plantations you have made, beyond (I dare 

 assert it) all the Monarchs of this Nation, since the Conquest 

 of it." 



It is not surprising that a government thus sohcitous of 

 forestry interests should have imposed many regulations on the 

 cutting of the forests in the new land, nor is it strange that the 

 settlers coming from a country where they fully realized the need 

 of forest conservation, should have humbly submitted to these 

 regulations and indeed imposed rules and by-laws of their 

 own. 



It is probable that the first sawmill in New England, and very 

 likely in America, was built at Agamentico, later known as York, 

 Maine, in 1623, or the following year, under the direction of Sir 

 Ferdinando Gorges, from whom is quoted: ''I sent over my son 



